Wellness, Prevention & Telehealth - Tips, News and Updates
This is a guest post from a new mental health non-profit called Change Mental Health.
Do you know what the World Health Organization estimates will be the biggest medical burden on health, globally, in the year 2020? Not cancer. Not heart disease. Rather, mental health. In Canada alone, inefficiencies in the mental health space cost over $51 billion a year. But let's look at some of the most frighting statistics:
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Julia Di Nardo, PhD, who is a licensed psychologist in Montreal Canada. She helps people who struggle with emotional eating, yo-yo dieting and weight management issues get to the root of their relationship with food and with themselves. By finding healthier ways of coping with life, resolving old traumas and hurts, or putting an end to destructive patterns, she can help people heal their hunger. To book an appointment with Julia visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Julia visit her website.
Emotional eating is a recurrent pattern of eating in response to your feelings, not physical hunger. It can take the form of reaching for a tub of ice cream when you’re sad, a bag of chips when you’re anxious, chocolate when you’re happy, surrounding yourself with your favourite foods when you’re lonely, or compulsively eating everything in sight when you’re bored. The key is that your eating habits are tied to your emotions, not to the signals your body is sending you. Somehow, the connection between eating and nourishing your body has become lost.
It’s no surprise that we connect food to emotional well-being. From the day we’re born, our first experiences of being loved and cared for come from the closeness we feel when we’re being fed. This connection is very strong, and is later reinforced by the messages we get from our loved ones. Food is intimately tied to celebration, from birthdays to weddings (think of that show, “I do, Let’s eat!"). We may have been comforted with food early on, from chicken soup when we had a cold to a chocolate bar when we felt down. We may have also been taught to eat everything on our plate, or witnessed a family member struggle with emotional eating. All of these sent us the message that food is somehow about more than just eating for survival.
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Susan Meindl, MA, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Montreal Canada. She has a special interest in Jungian ideas and practices a Jungian approach to psychodynamic psychotherapy. To book an appointment, contact Susan or see more information visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Susan visit her article directory.
You're just being neurotic! You're acting neurotic!
Your friends may say that to you when you worry about something that doesn't bother them, or something that your worry really will not fix. We say it to each other jokingly or critically... but what does it really mean?
Neurotic behavior
A psychologist will tell you that neurotic behavior or thinking, while distressing or painful to the individual, does not include any loss of contact with reality or behavior that is dramatically outside the social norms.
What this means in effect is that neurotic needs, wishes and behaviors are normal and necessary wishes and needs carried to a point of excess... usually because the individual is being driven by underlying fears and anxieties.
Two examples
We all have a normal, healthy desire to be loved and accepted, especially by those closest to us. However, when this need is expanded into a feeling that everyone must like and approve of us at all times and if they do not that we are failing terribly as human beings, then it has crossed the line and become a neurotic attitude.
Healthy effort becomes neurotic "workaholism" when you must always give 150%....not just in a crisis.
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Lisa Rutledge who is a Registered Dietitian on Salubri. To book an appointment or to contact Lisa visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Lisa visit her blog The Debunking Dietitian.
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Julia Di Nardo, PhD, who is a licensed psychologist in Montreal Canada. She helps people who struggle with emotional eating, yo-yo dieting and weight management issues get to the root of their relationship with food and with themselves. By finding healthier ways of coping with life, resolving old traumas and hurts, or putting an end to destructive patterns, she can help people heal their hunger. To book an appointment with Julia visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Julia visit her website.
In this post, I outline how to identify the signs that you might be an emotional eater. You may recognize yourself in some, many or all of these. Read on to discover the top 10 signs you might be struggling with emotional eating.
Top 10 signs you’re an emotional eater:
1. Do you reach for certain comfort foods whenever you feel sad, depressed, lonely or bored? You may have certain foods that you know are sure to make you feel better, like sweets, pasta, chips, or chocolate. Whenever the slightest feeling of sadness or boredom sets in, you immediately feed it with these comfort foods.
2. Do you reward yourself with food for doing something hard or challenging? You’ve completed a major project, finished your last exam, made it through that terrible meeting with your boss, or spent half the day cleaning up your office. What better way to pat yourself on the back than with a special treat (sushi is one of my personal favourites!).
3. After a hard day, do you treat yourself to your favourite foods? You were late for work, you forgot some important papers at home, the microwave was broken at lunch, and you didn’t complete nearly half of the work you were supposed to. On your way home, you stop and pick up some pizza, because no way are you cooking and besides, you deserve it.
Salubri is pleased to welcome Lisa Rutledge, a Registered Dietitian. Lisa graduated from McGill University with B.Sc in Nutritional Science in 2005. She has worked in many different areas on nutrition. From hospitals to home care teams, private clinics and schools ranging from primary to the university level, her passion to teach and inform people about nutrition has led me to work in these various sectors of the health care system.
This wide range of experience has helped Lisa build an in-depth knowledge of cardiovascular disease, diabetes as well as weight management techniques. Her involvement with various programs has been at once challenging and professionally rewarding. Demystifying information about nutrition and sharing her understanding through counselling, presentations as well as group work have allowed Lisa to become a uniquely skilled dietitian. Emphasis on goal-setting, encouragement of lifestyle changes and customized guidance are just a few of the personal touches you will experience when meeting with her for a counselling session. Lisa also writes articles for her blog The Debunking Dietitian.
With the experience and insight of health practitioners such as Lisa Rutledge, Salubri is creating a rich platform for patients to connect to their desired health practitioner. To book an appointment with Lisa or to contact her please visit her Salubri profile.
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Susan Meindl, MA, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Montreal Canada. She has a special interest in Jungian ideas and practices a Jungian approach to psychodynamic psychotherapy. To book an appointment, contact Susan or see more information visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Susan visit her article directory.
Consider the possibility that you are not actually a failure.
How much of your sense of failure is related to the standards against which you are judging yourself? It may be worth considering whether you are looking at yourself through an appropriate lens. You can become a success overnight if you are willing to use a different set of criteria!
(1) Choose non-materialistic standards for success. It is heartbreaking to see how many people judge themselves failures because they are not rich enough, famous enough or thin enough. Success and failure are not limited to three simple categories. Every domain of human experience, intellectual, physical, relational and spiritual contains opportunities for success. It is a mistake to define the categories of human success too narrowly. If you look, you will probably find that you excel in many important human areas of experience.
(2) Cultivate the valiant attempt. Accept failure as an honestly paid price in the name of learning, skill development and deeper understanding. Many important projects require several false starts, detours or successive approximations before they bear fruit.
(3) Cultivate the ability to be a good loser or a good sport. Being graceful in defeat is a much admired quality of character. Entertainingly, it means that one can even succeed at failing.
(4) Believe in your resilience. Hang on to your belief that you can recover from disappointments mistakes and failures. Change your perspective...Adopt a longer time frame ...Will this failure still feel important in a year? In ten years? Does it really affect the opinion of those people most emotionally important to you?
(5) Develop a sense of humor about yourself, your standards, your efforts and your eventual success and failure. Often fear of failure is entangled with a fear of being laughed at or ridiculed. Having a sense of humor about yourself lets you laugh with others and detoxifies the experience.
Salubri is pleased to welcome Dr. Darrell Johnson. Dr. Johnson completed his Doctorate in psychology at Université de Montréal in 1999. He is a registered psychologist, member of the OPQ (Ordre des Psychologues du Québec). Since 1986, Dr Johnson has practiced therapy with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families in school, hospital and mental health clinic settings. He has been in private practice since 1999.
Editor's Note: This guest post was written by Lisa Rutledge who is a Registered Dietitian on Salubri. To book an appointment or to contact Lisa visit her Salubri Profile. To read more articles by Lisa visit her blog The Debunking Dietitian.
Everyone knows that the key to weight management is to eat less. This could mean eating smaller portions of what you already prepare (e.x. 6oz of steak versus 12oz) OR switching out higher calorie foods for lower ones (yogurt instead of cookies for example). Sounds simple but as we all know, words are easier than action. So, how do we move from wanting to eat less to actually eating less? Exploring the 3 steps that lead to eating too much can help to make it easier to put words into action. Making it easier to choose healthier portions is key! Relying on "self control" is not a useful strategy.
It's our distinct pleasure to inform you that Salubri is now LIVE.
You can now search through our list of qualified health practitioners to find the perfect Registered Dietitian, Psychologist, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counsellor or Clinical Social Worker. You can then book and pay for either an in-person, phone or Skype consultation with your chosen practitioner. We are constantly adding new health practitioners to meet everyone's needs.
To get started: Visit Salubri.com and click Find a Health Practitioner.
Here are some helpful links: How It Works - Demo Videos - Free Patient Sign Up
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Salubri is a consumer health company that connects patients to their desired health practitioner. Read about company updates, wellness and telehealth articles as well as Salubri health practitioner interviews.
